Best/smallest notebook/laptop for AutoCAD?

[CFlemisterIV]

Hello all,

I am wanting a laptop/notebook (the smaller the better) to use for school work and AutoCAD 2011 or 2012. I was hoping that someone on here has some useful suggestions or experience using a small notebook/laptop for CAD.

Powerful, but small ... preferably with at least a 5 hour battery life with moderate use, those are my requirements! Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[ram1009]

IMHO, you are wasting your time. 3D CAD programs require more computing power than can be supplied by a portable computer of any description. Check with Autodesk and see what they think.

 

[cadder]

Hello all,

I am wanting a laptop/notebook (the smaller the better) to use for school work and AutoCAD 2011 or 2012. I was hoping that someone on here has some useful suggestions or experience using a small notebook/laptop for CAD.

Powerful, but small ... preferably with at least a 5 hour battery life with moderate use, those are my requirements! Any ideas?

Thanks!

You can run autocad on modest hardware as long as you aren't running real big drawings. I have a Dell laptop with a P9500 processor (2.53GHz dual core) and 4GB of ram and it does pretty well. I also have a 13" ultraportable with 1.6GHz dual core cpu and 5 hour battery life, but it would be pretty slow with autocad. I believe current machines with the new i3 mobile processors will have enough speed AND close to enough battery life. Some manufacturers offer extended batteries so if battery life is a high priority then you would want to go that way.